


No, It's Not The Same

by constancehainesashes



Category: Original Work
Genre: Betrayal, Childhood, Children, Christmas, Commitment, F/F, F/M, Family, Feelings, Frenemies, Friendship, Gen, Growing Up, Hurt, Love, Lust, M/M, Marriage, More tags to be added, Multi, Other, Pain, Wedding, celebration, change, couples, happiness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-10-06 03:44:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17337962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constancehainesashes/pseuds/constancehainesashes
Summary: Jelena and Richard have been best friends since they were in nappies. Growing up together their friendship remained strong through many fights and trials, even through Jelena dating his older sister for a year. But now, everything is different. Jelena and Richard don't speak much and have separate lives. She doesn't think much of it until she suddenly finds out that he is getting married and she isn't invited. Amidst allegations that she's in love with her best friend, or just jealous of the happiness he's found, Jelena sets out to mend her friendship only to discover some shocking revelations waiting for her back home, which test her in ways she hadn't imagined, including her familial ties and romantic relationship.





	1. Prologue

It seemed a normal day at university for Jelena on a crispily cold December morning. She hated getting up early, especially in the winters, but she had an 8 am class every Thursday. Oh well, at least it was her last year at university, and the semester was almost over. She looked forward to going home and seeing her family again. She hadn’t seen them since last Christmas, since she’d spent an entire month of the summer holidays with her boyfriend, Edmund, and his family. He was honestly so great and their relationship was blossoming. Jelena didn’t remember a time she’d been so content and happy with the place she was in her life, although she had had a pretty easy life, so to speak.

With a sigh she woke herself up and 7 am and brushed her teeth, throwing up her messy hair into a bun so that it would stay out of her face and also keep her from looking like a homeless derelict. That was all that mattered. No one was going to be looking at her face in the early class apart from the professor, who would be the only person fully awake in the entire lecture hall big enough to house about two hundred students.

Jelena pulled on some clothes, not really paying much attention to what she was actually wearing. She’d just be adding a sweater and a large trench coat on top of that. It was freezing out and she would be lucky if she could still keep herself from shivering till her teeth chattered. She put on some lip balm and hastily grabbed her bag, getting out of her dorm room and starting the mile-long walk to the building she needed to get to. She hated Thursdays. 

She got to the class on time. She was an English major and this class was for studying the classics. They were on Jane Austen right now. Pretty standard stuff, Jelena had read most of her works while she was still in school. Next, they’d probably do Jane Eyre or go on to Charles Dickens. Boring.

She was almost dozing off to the sound of Mr Tate droning on and on about Jane Austen’s life, and how she came to writing the books she wrote, when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She slid it out carefully, not wanting to earn Mr Tate’s wrath on a Thursday morning. She honestly was not in the mood to get called out in front of the entire class.

Jelena was expecting the text message to be from Edmund. They had spent the weekend together when he came to visit her at her dorm and that had been nice. More than nice, actually. Their relationship was going so well, Jelena thought they’d probably be married within a couple of years. Not that she was ready to jump the bandwagon straight away. She wasn’t. She had dreams she wanted to fulfil and things she had to do before she tied the knot and settled down. She was an independent woman.

But the text she had received wasn’t from Edmund. It was from Jolene, Jelena’s ex-girlfriend and yet, still an excellent friend. Jelena was bisexual and while Jolene had been not just her first girlfriend but her first partner, things hadn’t ended well simply because they went long distance and fell for other people around the same time. No hard feelings there. Because they were both happy in their relationships and everything was going smoothly.

Except things were definitely not smooth.

Jelena really wished she hadn’t taken out her phone now, because Jolene’s text was not something she wanted to read. It was shocking, upsetting and downright disrespectful. Jelena could feel hot tears running down her cheeks, trying to hold in her sobs. She couldn’t believe it. Her best friend had totally isolated her.

She managed to hold it in until class was over, at which point she ran to the bathroom before bursting into ugly sobs. How could he do that to her? He was her best friend, they grew up together, they did everything together until she started university. The distance ended her relationship with his sister but not their friendship of more than ten years. Lately they’d been drifting but Jelena never thought too much of it, which was the most wrong she had ever been.

Jelena called Edmund once she had caught her breath enough and wiped her face angrily, waiting for him to answer. It was still too early for him, probably the wee hours of the morning in his time zone, but he always answered whenever she called. And she needed him right now, badly, to pick up and tell him everything was going to be okay. He always had a way with words and he was great with comforting her.

Edmund picked up a second before the call went to voicemail, sounding sleepy and concerned. “Baby? Why are you calling me so early in the morning?” he said into the phone.

“Richard is getting married. And he didn’t invite me.”


	2. Chapter 2

Edmund had had a very long day. He’d been in the recording studio with his band trying to get a good sound in. He definitely loved to play the guitar and sing but it was all in good fun, and just a hobby. To be honest he was not the type of guy to become a famous music pop star or the sort and go on to tour the world serenading every fangirl.

Edmund was just a recording tech. He worked at the studio owned by a good friend of his, and he liked his job. He loved music and listening to music as well as making music, but the best part of it all was that he could just sneak into recording when no one was there and play something just for his own enjoyment. He didn’t have his own sound yet; he was simply experimenting with everything, trying out new genres, playing different combinations of notes on different instruments to see what worked and what didn’t. The creativity it took to actually write something, lyrics and compositions, from scratch, often made him glad he didn’t choose something so unstable as a career. His creativity always came in spurts.

After spending the entire morning trying to come up with a good composition for a slow pop-rock ballad he grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to the recording studio. Some new band was coming in to do the final recording of a couple of songs, which was always a nightmare and took forever. Being new to the recording atmosphere, it took time to figure out how close to stand to the microphone, when to lean in and when to lean backwards depending on the note you were singing, and many other things. It was the recording technician’s job to make it sound good, modulate the voice, or basically just Autotune the crap out of whoever asked for it, which was pretty common now.

Edmund ended up working till night-time, until the band had successfully recorded two songs perfectly, before closing up shop and heading to his small apartment in the city. It wasn’t too small, and not too shabby considering he lived there alone and rarely had visitors. He got a quick takeaway dinner on his way back, just some Chinese, and rushed it home. After eating he was pretty much exhausted so he fell into bed after taking off his clothes, covering himself with the blanket before falling into a deep sleep.

When he woke up his phone was blaring the familiar ringtone of Hey Jude by The Beatles he’d set for Jelena. He answered without looking at his phone, because he already knew who it was. He was sleepy but not sleepy enough to not realise that she’d called him really early in the morning, which almost never happened. “Baby? Why are you calling me so early in the morning?” he said sleepily. He could hear her sniffling in the background, a muffled sound.

“Richard is getting married. And he didn’t invite me,” she said, almost too calmly.

Edmund knew that tone. Jelena was deeply upset, and that was not okay to him. “What? When, and how did you find out?” he asked. He had a deep instinct to rush to her to be with her but she was so far away it was impossible.

“I don’t know any of that. Jolene texted me, saying he is,” she explained sorrowfully, finally expressing the pain she was feeling. Tears rolled down her cheeks hotly, and she didn’t bother to try and keep them in.

Edmund took a sharp breath in. Richard had been her best friend growing up and Edmund knew and respected that, and honestly there was no animosity between the two because there was never any reason for it, but right now, he really hated Richard with a burning passion. This wasn’t the first time he’d really hurt Jelena, but by far the worst damage he’d ever caused.

“Ed? Say something,” Jelena whispered pitifully. All the pity was for herself though. She felt like such an idiot.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “You don’t deserve this, certainly not from your best friend in the whole wide world. And I’m going to give that man a good talking to.” The plan was already forming in his mind. He was going to go over to Richard’s house and-

“No,” Jelena said immediately, knowing what he was thinking. “You are not going over there, no way. You can’t embarrass me like that. I’m a big girl, I can handle my problems you know. I just need you to be there for me when the time comes. Promise me.”

Edmund took a deep sigh. Sometimes she knew him too well. “Ugh,” he groaned, relenting. “Fine. I promise.” He figured Jelena was in plenty of pain anyway, and he didn’t want to add to her stress by making the situation worse and doing something she wasn’t comfortable with. “I love you so much, he makes me so angry sometimes,” he confessed.

“I know,” Jelena echoed. “And thank you for promising. I know it’s hard for you sometimes to not jump in and try to solve everyone’s problems, but you can’t fix everything.” She sniffled softly again. “And that’s not your job. Rick’s really crossed the line this time, and I know that. Somewhere in here. But I can’t just cut him out of my life. He’s my best friend.”

“Was, Jelena,” Edmund corrected. “He was your best friend. He isn’t anymore. He honestly just treats you like a doormat these days, when are you going to see that? His sister had to tell you about his wedding. He didn’t even have the courage to tell you himself, forget invite you to one of the most important days in his life. That’s not what best friends do. I’m sick of you beating yourself up. This is not your fault. Please, my love. Don’t cry over him.”

Jelena sniffled. “Well now I’m crying because you made me emotional with your random declaration of love. And because it’s not that easy, Ed. I can’t just forget the memories I made with him growing up. I can’t forget the love I have for him. He is a huge part of who I am today and it’s not that easy to just pretend he doesn’t exist. He’s changed, I know, but so have I. I have to give him a chance to explain himself before I make any hasty decisions. I don’t want to say or do the wrong thing and regret it later. Relationships are important.”

“I know that,” Edmund sighed, giving up. “I’m not going to tell you what to do, J, because you’re going to do the right thing. I believe in you and you don’t need anyone telling you what’s right and what’s wrong here. It’s about your feelings and trying to mend the friendship you lost. But that’s a two-way street. Don’t try too hard, because it sounds like he’s moved on. I’ll be the one picking up the pieces afterwards and you know it too. Not that I mind picking up the pieces when it comes to you. You know I would do anything for you.”

Jelena wiped her tears and took a deep breath. “I know you’re right. I’ll give him one shot. No more. I’m tired of all this, Ed,” she sighed softly. “I don’t want to put you through this. I’m sorry.”

“Never be sorry for what you’re feeling.” His voice was fierce.

_ _ _ _ _ 

 

After talking for a few more minutes with Edmund, Jelena felt better. She hung up after they’d said their ‘I love you’s to each other and washed her face. She looked at her phone to see another text from Jolene, and this one was a picture message. While she waited for it to finish loading, she stepped out from the bathroom and walked to the cafeteria. There probably wouldn’t be any food yet, but she could definitely use a tea or two.

She sat down with her mug and took a look at her phone. The picture was a photo of the wedding card. And the date was for the next weekend. She still had two more weeks of uni, a few assignments to submit on the last day, before she headed home for Christmas break. So, she wouldn’t be in town for the wedding anyway. But that wasn’t even the worst part.

Honestly Jelena should have seen it coming. She’d seen the pictures of them together on his social media. She knew they were dating but she never thought it would get serious between them. Obviously, what she thought was completely wrong, and it wasn’t the first time she’d been wrong about Richard in the past few months at all. She honestly should have seen this coming.

He was marrying her. Destiny.


	3. Chapter 3

Jolene stared at her phone worriedly. She’d texted Jelena hours ago, and she still hadn’t responded, leaving her on seen. So not Jelena’s typical nature. Jolene was seriously fighting with her inner self right then. She loved her little brother, very much, actually, but that didn’t mean she was okay with him doing this to his best friend. He was pretty much just never going to tell Jelena, not until the wedding was done and dusted. She’d probably have found out from her parents when she returned home for Christmas.

“What the hell,” she grumbled to herself, throwing her phone on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Because ‘lil bro’ was getting hitched the entire brood was back home. It was definitely reminiscent of the good old times, and Jolene loved that, but the tension was sometimes so obvious. Rick would zone out, and she knew exactly what he was thinking about. He knew he was wrong somewhere in there, but he never did anything about it. And Jolene was sick of it.

That was why she’d done what she’d done. She knew it was better for Jelena to hear it from her rather than from social media or a meddling common friend. It was no secret that most of their mutual friends had thought Jelena and Richard had a thing, a romantic thing, and were convinced they were in love. The reality was truly the opposite. There had never been any romantic feelings between them.

But that didn’t mean that Jelena wouldn’t have been hurt. Jolene knew she was hurting right then, and all she wanted to do was help her, but she didn’t know how. She decided to call, even though she knew it would probably just go to voicemail. Oh well, she’d feel a little better after leaving a message.

She sighed and hung up after insisting that Jelena call her back, looking up to see Sophie, the love of her life, standing in the doorway to her old bedroom. Only Soph could make her feel better right now.

“Are you okay, my love? You seem upset,” she said sweetly, sitting down in Jolene’s lap, looking down at her worriedly.

“I’m fine, just worrying about Jelena,” Jolene sighed, kissing her cheek lightly, wiping the gloss mark she left behind with her thumb. “I’m glad you’re here though. I honestly couldn’t have got through this without you here with me.”

Sophie gave her a soft smile. “I would walk through fire for you. I love you very much,” she declared, kissing Jolene’s lips softly. She just wanted her to feel okay. All this stress and these conflicting emotions were not good for her health.

Jolene felt better instantly as they parted lips. “What would I even do without you, you amazing woman?” she breathed happily.

 

_ _ _ _ _

 

Jelena listened to the voicemail only after she was done with classes for the day. She was in the library, with her earphones plugged in as she browsed through the books. There wasn’t any course material she hadn’t already read, but she didn’t remember Charlotte Bronte very well, and there had to be a biographical type of book on the Bronte sisters she could read to help her write a paper. They were doing Jane Eyre this week, after all.

As much as she tried to keep her thoughts occupied, they came back to her. So, she finally relented and played the voicemail, instantly feeling guilty. Jolene really sounded worried and none of this was her fault. Jelena knew that, and she quickly shot her a text, apologising and lying that she had a lot of assignments to do before winter break actually started. Truthfully, she should have called, but she wasn’t ready to talk to anyone yet. Talking to Ed about what was happening had helped, but she still felt an all-consuming despair whenever she thought about it.

Jelena didn’t understand what she was exactly feeling. She was sad, because of how far away Richard had drifted from her. She knew it wasn’t all his fault; she’d drifted, too. She was also very upset with him, for obvious reasons. She was hurt, definitely very hurt. She didn’t know how to process all that, and on top of it, she was angry. Angry that he was marrying Destiny. Just the thought of that girl boiled Jelena’s blood.

Truthfully Jelena hadn’t thought about her in years, but ever since Richard had started dating her, he seemed different. Their phone calls would last only a few minutes, and then he just stopped calling. She was the one calling him every single time. He’d sound uninterested in talking to her, only reacting with vague syllables. She had tried to brush it off on him being tired and busy, trying not to read into things and make them more complicated than they needed to be. She wasn’t the type to make it all into a big thing and get into a fight.

So, had Destiny actually got into his head? It wasn’t entirely impossible, and even though Jelena felt terrible and biased for thinking that way about her, the doubt sprung up in her mind like a weed she couldn’t pluck. She wasn’t even looking at the books anymore; she was just walking past the bookcases. She was so immersed in her thoughts, she almost bumped into someone, profusely apologising and sitting down at a corner table.

Could it actually be true? Destiny had somehow turned Richard against her. She’d done that thing she did to mess with people’s minds and got everyone to like her and approve of her marrying him. Jelena knew the Summers family; they were very close knit. If anyone had objected to the wedding, Richard would have held off out of respect and love for his family. She even had Jolene wrapped around her finger.

That sounded ridiculous. Destiny must have changed, right? She was probably not that shrew, manipulating past self anymore. Rick had good taste in women; surely, he couldn’t have fallen for a total bully. Destiny deserved the benefit of the doubt.

Jelena wasn’t dim. She knew that hating Destiny for something that had happened in the past was cruel on her part, but Jelena always had a hard time forgiving people that hurt her.

Not that any of that actually mattered. Richard and Destiny were going to get married no matter what and there was nothing she could do about that.

 

_ _ _ _ _

 

After spending the whole day wallowing in her thoughts, Jelena slapped herself. ‘Get over it,’ she muttered, eating her dinner alone and crawling into bed. She was done obsessing over something she had no control over. She was just killing herself and she honestly deserved better than all this negativity. But over thinking was a bad habit and hard to kill.

She tossed and turned the entire night, her sleep plagued with terrible dreams that seemed to make absolutely no sense. First, a knife wielding murderer was after her. After escaping that man, she fell down an empty and spooky elevator shaft only to have spiders crawling all over her. She woke up with a cold sweat, checking the time. It was 4 am. She drank some water and laid back down.

When she woke up it was 10 in the morning. On Fridays her first class didn’t start until noon, so she got an extra day to sleep in without an alarm to wake her up. She climbed out of her bed and opened the curtains on the other side of her dorm room, by her roommate’s bed. Clara didn’t live here anymore. She’d moved in with her boyfriend at the start of the semester and no one had come in to take the spare spot. Jelena really hoped it would stay that way. She liked her privacy.

Jelena took a shower and got ready for the day, stepping out of her room once she had everything. She still had a while before her classes, so she walked into the city to get herself a nice brunch. A healthy breakfast was a good start to the day when she wasn’t forcing herself awake at 7 in the morning.

After eating a full fry up, she downed some tea and walked to campus, deciding she would not think about yesterday at all. She was fine. Her classes ended up being mildly interesting as they were taught about how their curriculum would be useful to actually land a job. The opportunities were limited for an English degree holder. Mostly editing, pretty standard stuff. The dream job was to work in a major publishing house as an editor.

Jelena’s classes were done at four pm. She spent her evening in the library, reading a few small books on famous classic authors, before issuing a book of Shakespearean sonnets to take back to her dorm to read. The day was actually going okay, and much better than the disaster yesterday had been.

She ate a little dinner around 8 pm and called home to confirm that she was indeed not going to be home till two days before Christmas eve. It had proven to be impossible to get a direct flight, so she would be taking the train. She was going to be stuck on a train for nearly three days. Great.

Her goal was to take as less course work with her as possible, so she spent the weekend working on the necessary assignments she had to submit, both before and after the Christmas break. She finished a good few pieces, turning them in as quickly as she could. The week seemed to pass in a blur. She talked to Edmund almost every night, thinking of him as the one who gave her strength and kept her going. He kept her sane. She was truly so lucky to have him, she didn’t even care what Richard did.

That was a lie. She cared.


	4. Chapter 4

Jelena sighed to herself as she checked her bags one last time before closing and locking her dorm room door. It was the last day of classes before Christmas break and she was done with everything, about to head to the train station. She knew the train was going to be crowded and was totally not interested in making conversation with strangers, but there was nothing that could be done now. She had barely got the required tickets in time, and just thinking about sleeping in the train seat made her neck ache. She grabbed everything and headed off, waiting for her Uber to arrive outside her dorms, to take her to the train station.

It was three pm when she found herself at the train station. Her train didn’t leave for another half an hour or so, so she decided to go look in the shops for some snacks to eat later just in case, even though the train did have a pantry car. In the shops she also picked up some magazines, to read on the way there. Anything to make the journey less boring.

On one of the magazine covers was a new band that Edmund had been working with. He talked about it sometimes, so Jelena just felt really proud of him, that artists he worked with were famous, and he was an important part of the reason why.

Sigh. She was going to miss him terribly this holiday season. Why did he have to live so far away from her, that too in another country? Canada. To be precise, Montreal, but then again many would argue that wasn’t that far away. He worked in Los Angeles, though, where Jelena’s family lived, but she was studying at Columbia University all the way at the east coast.

In a normal situation, Jelena would not have minded going home and being with her family minus Edmund, but now that Richard and Destiny would be there too as a married couple, it only made her feel worse. It wasn’t that she felt the need to show off her boyfriend, because honestly, people didn’t really understand their relationship and always thought that Jelena was in love with Richard, which was never the case, but that didn’t mean she didn’t love him at all.

Jelena sighed to herself and got on the train. Think happy thoughts, she told herself, like how Jolene would be there, and so would Sophie. She liked Sophie, but to be honest, Jolene always had good taste in friends and romantic partners. Paul, Richard and Jolene’s older brother would be there too, and his wife and two sweet daughters. They would keep her busy and away from Richard, wouldn’t they?

Oh well, she thought. Nothing she could do about it. They were going to meet face to face and it would definitely be awkward. No point in overthinking it. It would just be better to listen to some music and drown out those thoughts. She found her seat and got herself situated before putting in her earphones and playing some new music Edmund had sent her. He played the guitar so well and whenever he sent her a clip, she would just listen to it over and over again, imagining him playing with that little frown between his eyebrows that showed up whenever he concentrated on something particularly hard. She would just have to deal with missing him.

Just before the train was about to leave a woman rushed in with two bags and sat down in the seat in front of Jelena’s. She was wearing pencil heels, and her toes were perfectly painted a bright red to match her dress that certainly put Jelena’s plaid shirt and jeans to shame. Her fingernails were painted too and she was wearing some bling and sunglasses with a classy hat on top of her blonde hair. Jelena only raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything, still listening to her music. Little did she know; this woman was going to completely change her life.

_ _ _ _ _

Olivia, Paul’s wife, tried her best to get their daughters, Rose and Angelica, to sit still while she got their pretty shoes and did their hair. Their uncle was getting married today after all, and Angelica especially was really attached to him.

“Sweetie, please bear with mommy and sit still for five more minutes,” Olivia gently coaxed, zipping up her lovely lilac coloured dress. “Be good like your sister.” Although Rose was no saint, she was trying to be a good role model, nodding seriously at Angelica.

“Mommy,” Angelica said, trying to pout to get her way. She didn’t understand why mommy had put her in all these frilly clothes, they were itchy and hot, even though it was the middle of winter. It was California after all.

“I’ll take them,” Paul said as he walked in, Olivia giving a sigh of relief. The ceremony was starting in less than half an hour and she still had to get dressed, do her hair and her makeup. Time flew extra fast when she had two fussy kids to take care of.

“You’re a lifesaver,” Olivia sighed, pecking his cheek. “Aren’t you looking dapper in your suit?” she teased lightly, winking at him.

Paul grinned and gave her butt a light tap as he took the girls out. Jolene and Sophie were already waiting too, dressed to the nines and looking glamorous. “Oh ladies, don’t want to upstand the bride, do you?” Paul chuckled when he saw the two.

Sophie rolled her eyes lightly, leaning down to gossip some with Rose and Angelica about their dresses. Angelica was a bit young to get it but happy to be included in everything with her sister and she liked Sophie, too. However, Rose was a total fashionista, preening in praise and showing off her pink dress.

Jolene gave Paul a look, glad that Sophie had distracted the girls. “We all know Destiny’s wedding dress is going to be more extra than Princess Diana’s,” she said, shrugging, making Paul laugh.

“I was going to ask if you could go help Olivia with getting ready, the girls took a lot to get into their clothes,” Paul whispered to Jolene, making her chuckle knowingly in response. Paul was absolutely no help when it came to girly things, poor guy just fumbled. She gave a nod and went off, knocking on Olivia’s door.

“Hey, it’s Jo, do you need any help?” she asked, waiting for her to open up.

“Yes!” Olivia opened the door and pulled her in, her lovely purple dress still unzipped and her face a bit frantic, but Jolene had it all in control as always. Once her hair was done, she sat her down in a chair and started her makeup, keeping it light.

“So,” Olivia started softly, “about this whole wedding extravaganza.”

“I’ve definitely got some thoughts,” Jolene laughed. “But I’m obviously not going to say anything to anybody and let my big mouth get me in trouble again. Don’t get me wrong, I want little bro to be happy and he’s all smiles when he’s with Destiny, but then again, I just don’t know about her. She seems to be really different now which is a great thing, but I’m always left wondering why she makes me uneasy sometimes. Maybe it’s just because she’s so high maintenance.”

“You’re one to talk,” Olivia joked. “I mean you look like a goddess and it isn’t even your wedding yet.”

Jolene winked. “You should see Sophie. I will be making heart eyes at her all night,” she smirked. “And the wedding is still seven months away, Olivia, you tease. Of course, I’ll be decked out in a stunning white dress.”

“Of course!” she agreed, getting to her feet when Jolene deemed her looking perfect for the day. “Alright we’d better get out there and hope Angelica hasn’t kicked off her princess shoes yet.”

Jolene giggled. “I’m pretty sure she’s saving that for the vows.”

_ _ _ _ _

“That ceremony was exhausting!” Sophie complained as soon as the bride and groom were whizzed off in their Just Married car to their honeymoon.

Jolene pecked her cheek in agreement. “My feet hurt,” she mock whispered, making them both giggle at each other like teenagers as they watched Olivia and Paul carrying a daughter each, who were both fast asleep. It was getting pretty late.

“Say, Jo, want to go eat more cake?” Sophie suggested, winking a perfectly lined green eye at her. “We could also nick off some champagne.”

“Perfect,” she agreed, taking her hand and kissing it lightly as they made their way back to the dining hall. “So about today,” she started hesitantly.

“It sure makes our wedding plans seem terribly small,” Sophie finished, knowing exactly what she was thinking. “But I really don’t think it’s a bad thing. I mean, Destiny’s dream day looked like this.”

“Our dream day definitely does not,” Jolene murmured to herself. “You’re right. We don’t need a poofy wedding dress or extremely over the top cake toppers.”

Sophie chuckled as she handed a plate with a big slice of cake on it to her. “We also don’t need to invite so many people. Your family, my family, a handful of friends. We won’t even have a quarter of the population compared to today. And honestly? That sounds like the perfect day to me.”

Jolene took a bite of the cake, shaking her head. “Vanilla cake,” she grumbled. “It’s so boring. Why do people even think it’s classy? I want chocolate or red velvet at ours,” she bantered, sipping champagne.

“You know what, my love?” Sophie mused fondly. “For you, I will get both.”


End file.
